The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-08-07
CUMMINGS-HALL LETTER.
SOME FACTS ABOUT STENOGRA-
PIERS AND TYPEWRITER


Some of the Notable Characters
Who Have Lately Arrived in Gotham
Queer Baron Selliere-Points in the
Career OF E. G. Gilmore.
New YORK, Aug 6-There are more than
500 stenographers in New York and the
number is yearly increasing. Most Of them
find employment as private secretaries in
offices at salaries ranging from SIP to $50
week, or rs reporters in the numerous re-
ferees courts at from 10 to pc per 100
words or folios. Occasionally an expert is
hired at a stated salary by some litigant who
docs not care to depend upon the court
stenographer for copies. Jacob Sharp em-
ploye1 during his long trial of nearly forty
days two stenographers at IS an hour. The
shorthand men employed in the great case
followed the comparatively deliberate speak
eIs easily until Col. Fellows made his sum-
ming up speech for the prosecution. He is
a rapid talker and it taxed them to the ut
most to follow him. Then came the address
of Bourke Cochran in behalf OF n permanent
stay for Sharp. He is one OF the most rapid
speakers at the bar, and when he had
warmed to his work, he averaged 200 words
q minute. There are probably not five short
hand men in New York who could have fol
lowed him. and two of them were at the
trial. During pause IN the orators ad-
dress Mr.. Sharps stenographer, who was
nearly overcome with fatigue and the heat,
created considerable nerriment in court by
asking Mr. Cochran plaintively how much
longer he proposed to speak. The steno-
graphic report of this great trial has just
been written ont II makes a volume of
1850 pages, 1850 fOlios or | $4,000 words.
A stenographcr in New York courts gets
stated salary Of g, 500 a year, and he is al
lowed TO charge for extra copies of his re-
ports. This revenue swells his income TO
about 5000 year, but he earns it. The
shorthand writer who reported the trial OF
Alderman McQuade was 50 proStrate1 with
fatigue at the end of the case that he has not
been able to work since.
In great trial the record of days pro-
ceedings must he written out by the opening
of court the next day. AS soon as court
adjourns the stenoglapher hastens to his
office with his notes. IL would be utterly
impossible TO transcribe them all during the
night, out he dictates part of them to an
other stenographer, who writes them down
in shorthand and then dictates them to a
rapid typewriter. The court stenographer
dictates the last portion of his report to all
other typewriter, and the weary monotone
of the stenographers voice and the sharp
until | or O'Clock in the morning, when the
stenographer goes home TO get little rest
to fortify him for the next day. Men can
stand thlrty-five days of this work, as they
did in the Sharp trial, but it wears them out
in the end.
Among the lawyers at the New York bar
who are the terror of the shorthand men are
Ira Shafer and John K. Burrill, but even
they have never equaled the record of Judge
Van Brunt, Presiding Judge of the Supreme
Court. The court stenographer timed his
Honor one day while be was charging jury.
He spoke only seven minutes, but it was at
the rate of 207 words minute. In ordinary
| conversation the average individual utters
about 100 words a minute.
Some expert stenographers are slow in
reading their notes, and such are of little use
| in reporting court-martlal, for as soon as
each question is put the shorthand reporter
| of the trial must read it from his notes be-
fore the witness answers.
| 1t is not strange that occasionally a mis-
take on the part of a stenographer should
occur. In 1860 the fate of a man convicted
| in New York of murder hung upon the ac-
curacy of the stenographer's report. A
question as to the correctness of the report
| was raised and the shorthand writer refer
ring to his notes found that he had in die
tatlng to the cOpyist, omitted the record of
an exception taken by the defense to a ques-
ton by the prosecution. Inc record was
| the mere scratch of pen, but it proved of
immense consequence in the subsequent pro
ceedings.
| The united amount of shorthand work on
the newspapers of New York is usually done
by outside men hired for special occasions.
| Some of them are veterans, but unlike the
average old-timer. they do not talk about
the good old days. for formerly s.
a column was considered a good price for
their work while now they will not under
take an assignment for less then &c per
| folio
Closely associated with the stenographers
in their work is a large army of typewriters,
most of them ladies' They have their offices,
make good incomes and live we'll They
have uniform scale of &c. per folio for one
| typewriter copy, Sc. for two and 10 for
three copies. Some of them average seventy
| five words minute, or thirty-five folioS per
hour. In a recent contest one Of them
wrote 397 long words in four minutes and
thirty seconds, and another in four minutes
| and forty one seconds. They must fire.
quently write far into the night to prepare
copies needed the following day, and their
work, like that of the stenographer, ia very
tedious From three TO five years practice
is required to attain the proficiency of an
expert, but when they have reached that
point they can, under favorable circum-
stances make 81, 800 to S2.500 year.
AMOS j. CUMMINGS.